Manulife promotes access to education for underprivileged students

November 14, 2014, Phnom Penh, Cambodia – Manulife Cambodia donated 150 bicycles and 150 helmets to the students of the Pour un Sourire d’Enfant organisation (PSE) for supporting their fresh academic year 2014-2015. The event was organised at the PSE’s office in Phnom Penh and attended by representatives from Manulife Cambodia, PSE, students and members of the media.

This donation marks Manulife’s second year of support for the students. It encourages the students to attend their education regularly – the bicycles can help them be on-time at schools and the helmets will protect them in case of traffic accident.

When addressing the audience at the event as he delivered his speech, Mr. Robert Elliott, CEO & General Manager of Manulife Cambodia said “Manulife is a world’s leading life insurance company who care for the future of children and their families.”

“I am very proud to support such an impactful project, which contributes to human resource development of Cambodia and building a much stronger community,” he said.

“I hope that our support can contribute to improving student’s life and future, and enhance community development in the Kingdom, which in the long-run help contribute to building socio-economic development of Cambodia.”

All over the world, the lack of transportation forces many children to drop out of school. Some of our Cambodian students confronted with this problem too. For Mr. Pin Sarapich, Program Director of PSE Cambodia, Manulife’s donation makes a great contribution to promoting children’s access to education.

“Manulife has been a generous supporter of Pour un Sourire d’Enfant. We are grateful to them for helping our less fortunate students and we hope this is just the initial step of a long-term collaboration. Now, they will be able to commute to school on time and safely with Manulife Bikes and Helmets. Thanks to Manulife Cambodia,” he said.

In addition to bicycles and helmets the students received, the Asia Injury Prevention Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to preventing road injuries, will provide road safety training, which includes proper use of helmet to ensure that students can travel to and from school safely and that they remember to wear helmets every time when they will ride their bicycles.

Manulife has a long, proud tradition of giving back to the communities where we operate. From our headquarters in Canada to countries in Asia, Manulife is actively promoting this social tradition. Since Manulife commenced its operations in Cambodia in June 2012, Manulife Cambodia is actively engaged with social responsibility to support diverse CSR initiatives such as AIP’s helmet project, road safety awareness campaign, funds donation to Children Hospital, and the PSE’s My Future My Life programme.